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dam-l [GAIA-L] Vietnam to relocate 103,000 for huge dam project
Vietnam to relocate 103,000 for huge dam project
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>> HANOI - Vietnam will relocate 103,000 people including ethnic
>> minorities to build a reservoir for a giant hydro-electric power
>> plant, the Communist Party's newspaper said on Wednesday.
>> The Nhan Dan (People) daily said the people of Son La province, a
>> remote area in mountainous northwestern Vietnam, had long been waiting
>> for the 3,600 megawatt power project.
>> "Building the Son La power plant is a 1,000-year dream of the ethnic
>> minorities there," Nhan Dan, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party,
>> said in a lengthy article.
>> The daily said state-run Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) submitted a
>> feasibility study on the plant to the government on August 6. Although
>> no clear dates for construction have been given, once finished the
>> plant would double Vietnam's current power generation capacity.
>> Funding for the Son La plant has yet to be secured, although Nhan Dan
>> said 70 percent of loans for the project would come from foreign
>> sources and 30 percent from Vietnam. Russian consultants have worked
>> with EVN on the feasibility study.
>> The project has been shunned by the World Bank and other multilateral
>> bodies, which favour small hydro-electric projects that minimise the
>> impact on local people and the environment.
>> Nhan Dan said much work needed to be done to prepare for the project,
>> including relocating 16,520 households with some 103,000 residents of
>> various minorities and ethnic Vietnamese people to make way for the
>> dam's reservoir. Vietnam has 54 ethnic minorities who live mainly in
>> poor rural areas.
>> The newspaper said authorities would provide jobs for those relocated,
>> who are mainly farmers, and build them housing.
>> Vietnam has more than a dozen power stations and electricity demand is
>> expected to rise by 11.6 percent until 2010.
>> Hydro-generated electricity accounts for 63 percent of Vietnam's power
>> supply. Son La will be three times the size of the largest existing
>> hydropower station, the Soviet-built Hoa Binh plant 70 km (44 miles)
>> from Hanoi.
>> (C) Reuters Limited 1998.
>>
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Aviva Imhof, Mekong Program Coordinator
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703 USA
Tel: + 1 510 848 1155 (ext. 312), Fax: + 1 510 848 1008
Email: aviva@irn.org, Web: http://www.irn.org
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